North Devon has been named the UK’s first-ever World Surfing Reserve, and second in Europe.
There are 12 World Surfing Reserves worldwide, which include Malibu and Santa Cruz in California, Ericeira in Portugal, the Gold Coast, Manly and Noosa in Australia, Punta de Lobos in Chile, Huanchaco in Peru, Guarda do Embau in Brazil, and Bahia de Todos Santos in Mexico.
World Surfing Reserves serves as a model standard for preserving wave breaks and their surrounding areas by recognising and protecting key environmental, cultural and economic attributes in coastal communities.
So what does this mean for North Devon?
Establishing a World Surfing Reserve gives the surfing community and coastal protection experts a voice in decision-making processes that affect the coastline and some of the best beaches in the United Kingdom. The aim of the reserve is to make sure they stay the best – for everyone.
Kevin Cook, co-founder of the North Devon World Surfing Reserve said: “We are delighted to have this remarkable coastline recognised for its quality surf and precious ecosystem. We can now work together to protect this area for generations to come.”
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Speaking at an inauguration ceremony on May 12, North Devon Council chief executive Ken Miles said: “With the more people that come to this area to enjoy that lifestyle [surfing] the more pressure is on the coastline to create more houses, more businesses, and so on- all the sort of development that sustains communities. And I think this reserve really goes somewhere to trying to protect that coastline; protect it from unsuitable development - got to have suitable development obviously - and really enhance it for future generations."
Researchers at Plymouth Marjon University are now embarking on detailed research into what this means for the economy. The term that has been coined over the past 10 years is “surfonomics”, which aims to document surfing’s financial contributions to local and regional economies.
Dr Gregory Borne, senior lecturer in sustainable development at Plymouth Marjon University, told BusinessLive : “It’s about trying to understand what the value of a wave is and there are different ways of doing that. The most conventional way is to say ‘okay how many people are spending money in the area’. That kind of direct expenditure method - how much income is the wave, is the surf, bringing into a particular area?”
Dr Born continued: “And we are looking at different ways of doing that. We are looking at some more non-market value ways of understanding what the surf brings into a community or area - what are people’s perceptions of the surf, will they come back again, does it affect real estate prices and so on. So there are lots of different methods of understanding and seeing the surf as a resource.”
World Surfing Reserves is a program led by Save The Waves Coalition. “This stretch of surf ecosystems in North Devon perfectly represents what the World Surfing Reserves program works to protect,” said Trent Hodges, the conservation programs manager at Save The Waves. “But WSRs are about more than collection of surf breaks. This program is about passionate surfers who step up and rally their communities to look after the places they love.”
Dr Borne explained: “The fact that it [North Devon] has become a WSR acknowledges the fact that the wave has value and reinforces the fact that this is a valuable resource, that there is something going on that is very very special. It enables different stakeholders to communicate with each other and come together and have a conversation that may previously have not happened.”
The research that Dr Borne and his colleagues in the business department at Plymouth Marjon University will take about four to five months from now to complete. They are currently in the first phase of their findings.
Dr Borne added: “We have done a lot of background work on it. There have been a lot of conversations and we are working with stakeholders. We’ve been looking at the literature and looking at what is going on already. Looking at what the other surfing reserves have and what they’ve developed there. Their surfonomics studies and build on that work and take it forward.”
While Dr Borne was unable to comment on what his research could uncover he told BusinessLive : “I can speculate from experience that the establishment of a surfing reserve raises the profile of an area, raises interest in an area. It has the potential to increase the visibility of businesses that work in that area.”
Cllr Miles said during the ceremony: “The contact we have already had [with the North Devon World Surf Reserve] has been great. It does provide us with that one place to go to and the work that you’ve [campaigners] undertaken to getting the designation, and the work you’ve undertaken with Plymouth Uni really shows that this is a professional concern that we can really engage with. Your aims and ambitions in terms of the reserve are the same as the council’s.”
The Local Stewardship Council for the reserve includes the local surf clubs, beach owners, local government as well as organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage, National Trust, AONB, North Devon Biosphere, Plastic Free North Devon, RNLI, Wave Project, and Wave Wahines.
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